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1 „So You Want to Write a Canon?‟ an Historically-Informed New Approach for the Modern Theory Class Introduction Canonic

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1 „So You Want to Write a Canon?‟ an Historically-Informed New Approach for the Modern Theory Class Introduction Canonic „So You Want to Write a Canon?‟ An Historically-Informed New Approach for the Modern Theory Class1 Introduction Canonic writing has been part of the education of music students for centuries. Considered a routine means of elaborating primary musical material in the Renaissance,2 it maintained an important place in the didactic writings of later periods. Yet perusal of historical treatises or modern counterpoint texts usually reveals very little information about how to compose a canon apart from a step-by-step approach involving writing a short amount of material in one part, copying it into a second part after a predetermined time distance, finding suitable material to continue the first part, and repeating this process until the end of the piece. This general prescription for writing canons has survived intact in many historical sources3 and in pedagogical texts up to the present day.4 In most cases, little additional assistance is offered to students apart from general comments on common difficulties encountered in strict imitative writing, such as the potential for monotony in canons at the unison or octave, crossing of parts in unison canons, exact versus inexact intervallic imitation in non-unison canons, and forming cadences. Modern authors often provide surveys of the different subtypes of canon and include a wide range of repertoire examples.5 While such surveys are very useful to students in situating canonic writing in the history of Western music and demonstrating some of the levels of complexity and ingenuity within this tradition, they do not provide structured teaching material for guiding students through the processes and difficulties involved in writing different kinds of canon. It is reasonable to believe that composers of canon in earlier periods must have engaged in more sophisticated compositional strategies even though these are not immediately clear to us from most surviving theoretical documents. This belief is confirmed by a small number 1 of treatises from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that provide very different information on how to write a canon. This information relates to voice-leading prescriptions that ensure consonant intervallic relationships among the parts for the duration of the work. Careful study of these sources is worthwhile not only for their valuable information on the history of canon but also because of their potential application in a present-day counterpoint classroom. Musicological scholarship has had little engagement with these sources for canon,6 although several scholars have recently begun to explore what may be universal laws that govern strict forms of imitative writing, especially in contexts where voice entries occur after short time intervals. Studies in the 1990s by Robert Gauldin, Robert Morris and Alan Gosman propose abstract algorithmic schemes for writing canons.7 All three studies include calculations of consonant intervallic patterns formed by the first canonic voice on notes separated by the time distance of the canon, an aspect of their work that has much in common with the voice-leading specifications in the historical sources that provide rules for canonic writing. The work of John Milsom and Julian Grimshaw has focussed on principles of fuga in late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century repertoire.8 Milsom in particular has developed a useful lexicon for imitative procedures in Renaissance music, and his note- against-note reductive analyses of repertoire examples suggest overall that there may be deep underlying laws that govern the construction of strictly controlled imitative counterpoint – laws that come into play whether a composer used them rationally or intuitively. Although they do not situate their work in the historical theoretical sources, the work of modern scholars reinforces my belief that Renaissance composers must have engaged with basic underlying rules when writing different contrapuntal configurations. Inspired by Glenn Gould‟s playful „So You Want to Write a Fugue,‟ written for a 1963 CBC-TV program called “The Anatomy of the Fugue,”9 my purpose in this article is to establish principles of 2 two-part canonic writing that may inform pedagogical strategies in a present-day tertiary- level course in modal counterpoint. My discussion will draw upon evidence from the historical theorists and show how it may be usefully complemented by the abstract algorithmical protocols and analytical methods of modern scholarship. I will demonstrate how certain basic procedures drawn from broad principles can be applied successfully by beginning students of canonic counterpoint. Several scholars have noted the decline of counterpoint classes in tertiary-level curricula.10 Due to limited resources and opportunities for presenting the techniques and contexts of contrapuntal traditions, a counterpoint instructor likely has limited time to allocate to canonic writing. Development of students‟ skills beyond two-part canonic writing is therefore rare, with few progressing to canons by inversion, retrograde, augmentation or to canons for three or more parts. The method I will present here focuses on two-part canonic imitation in regular motion, which is students‟ first encounter with the topic and for which a systematic set of guidelines would be useful. I will not consider in detail every canonic possibility from unison to octave above or below but instead focus on certain cases which can serve as models for writing other types of canon. The final part of my discussion will consider two-part canonic writing in the presence of a cantus firmus, examples of which abound in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theoretical and practical sources for canon. Principles derived from historical treatises In the following discussion I will focus on the detailed voice-leading instructions for canonic writing found in a small number of late sixteenth-century treatises. The most important contributions were by Gioseffo Zarlino and William Bathe,11 while valuable information about the stages involved in writing a canon can also be determined from treatise examples by Thomas Morley.12 In different ways, these theorists articulated a 3 method for composing canons based on the regulation of the melodic and harmonic intervallic choices of the dux according to the interval of imitation between the dux and comes (I use the terms dux and comes to refer to the opening and following canonic voices respectively.) That they did so in the context of cantus firmus composition attests to the importance of cantus firmus treatment in music education in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it may indicate the origin of this material in improvised practice.13 Zarlino and Bathe appear to have worked independently of each other, with Zarlino prescribing rules for a small number of canon types whereas Bathe devised a tabular method for writing canons at all intervals from unison to seventh above or below. Later theorists such as the Nanino brothers and Angelo Berardi were indebted to Zarlino‟s work but did not provide additional insight into writing canons.14 Bathe‟s work has been overlooked and poorly understood to the present day. His contemporary Thomas Morley claimed that “the forme of making the Canons is so manie and diuers waies altered, that no generall rule may be gathered,” 15 suggesting that he was unaware of the work of Zarlino of Bathe. Passing references to some specific rules for canonic writing may occasionally be found in other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources, often in contexts concerned with non-canonic topics. These will not be considered here as the focus is on theoretical writings that attempted to formulate general principles of canonic writing. All of the surviving evidence for canonic writing deals with only two parts in the presence of a cantus firmus at short time intervals; there is nothing on canonic textures for three or more parts or relatively large temporal distances between the parts.16 Two broad rule classes are evident, one for the regulation of consonance between two canonic parts and the other for the coordination of the canonic parts when a cantus firmus is present. Observance of these rules gives rise to a first species exercise from which a fully worked out piece in mixed values is derived. These rules are best demonstrated through examples. 4 The first rule class concerns the melodic motion in the dux so that consonant harmonic intervals are formed between it and the second canonic part, the comes. For example, in a canon at the fifth above after a half note, Zarlino states that the dux melodic line should not proceed by ascending fourths and sixths or by descending thirds and fifths.17 These would lead to dissonant seconds, sevenths or ninths with the comes. For ease of understanding, I illustrate these rules in Example 1. Example 1: Zarlino, prohibited dux melodic intervals in a canon at the fifth above Zarlino‟s second rule class takes into account the presence of a cantus firmus. This means that the choice of melodic intervals for the dux is restricted not only by what is to appear in the comes but also by the necessity of maintaining consonant intervals with each melodic progression of the cantus firmus. Example 2 illustrates this rule in relation to cantus firmus progressions by unison and ascending second in a canon at the fifth above. For unison progressions, Zarlino specifies that the dux should form an octave above or third below the cantus firmus on the first note of the latter‟s melodic interval. For stepwise ascending motion in the cantus firmus, Zarlino allows a third or a fifth between dux and cantus firmus. In this way consonant outcomes are assured when the consequente follows on the second cantus firmus note. Example 2: dux-CF progressions in a canon at the fifth above, based on Zarlino‟s Le istitutioni harmoniche 3rd edn (1573), p. 308. There is one vital aspect to both rule classes: the intervallic calculation is dependent on the time distance of the canon.
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